Voted, probably be you and I plus maybe a couple others voting, as usual Could get lucky this time though and more than that will vote, could be easier to put it on our HQ pages for a couple of days? More people would read and vote imo.

SS players are often disliked and seen as not being part of the team simply because they want to deviate from the standard race

i dont agree with that, SS are not disliked because of what race they take, its the fact most dont play a part within the family, as in aiding in, communicating ect.

What if somebody wants to do a bit of everything?  While this is currently possible through the race customization, it is still highly discouraged by most players.  Not necessarily because it is inefficient (although it is) but more so because too much rides of filling out the fam's ratio correctly.  The game should support this kind of thing more than it currently does, because 1) not everybody can be active enough to be hyper specialized and 2) some people land in crappy families where they're the only ones doing any work.

I think specialization isn't necessarily a bad thing.  In fact it is a very good thing.  However, I think IC is currently far too weighted in the practice.  Specialization does not necessarily equate to teamwork.  Indeed Wendy and Lee are both right that this is a team game and non-team players will be disliked for not being team players.  However, that doesn't mean that this will change if the need to be highly specialized is reduced.

We should indeed reward teamwork.  However, we should also allow individual players to be more effective on their own.  The two can co-exist.  Right now, we are punishing players who depend too much on a system that requires a very specific formula to be successful.  We are punishing players who are incredibly active but stuck in families where they are dependent on people less interested in the game.  I think this is a very unfortunate thing, and part of the reason that people leave.

A family that plays as a team will still be rewarded and successful by the nature of teamwork and activity.  They don't need the current degree of specialization for this to be true.  We need to figure out how to make the game less frustrating for everybody, and that very much includes single active people who happen to be stuck in crappy families.  Reducing the necessity of specialization (which is another way to say, increasing support for self sufficiency) could be a step in the right direction.

Why shouldn't a player be allowed to be self sufficient, but still a team player, but not dependent on anybody else to be effective?  The current game makes this incredibly difficult if not impossible.

Refer my posts here:

http://imperialconflict.com/forum/viewt … 3#p1636453
http://imperialconflict.com/forum/viewt … 7#p1637007

Role specialisation in its current form, is definitely the most efficient way to do things.  eg:
3 SS players vs 1 Banker, 1 Resourcer, 1 Attacker - you'll be able to get maximum efficiency from the specialised roles.  This is why the game has evolved into team and now Fam bank styles of play.

However!  This has been, imo, the reason why IC has degraded.  Too many people are now no longer responsible for enough, and then this is a quick way to lose interest.

In my posts above, I've spoken about how people need to be responsible for their own empires.  Relying on only 1-2 people in a fam to set direction and tell you what to do, has hurt IC in the long run, imo.

So yep, role specialization imo needs to go.  And this is why I talk about a main galaxy incorporating SS play for everyone in a fam.  Easiest way (imo) to implement this in the short term, would be to have a gal like Pinwheel or Milky Way, with settings as normal, but just disable aid between empires and disable the market.  This way, you are tasked with fighting as well as infra on your own.  Take some iniatiaves, work as a team still, and have more control over the way you run your own empire.

This is incredibly important, and I fear we aren't seeing the urgency of this problem.  We've retained many of the same players over the years and I worry that we often think in terms of what is good for "the players" meaning the current playerbase vs what is good for "the game" meaning potential new players as well.

It's very hard to keep people interested, especially with so many alternatives available for people to spend their time.  We need to take a hard look at ourselves and think about things from a new player's perspective rather than just what we are used to.

This is another great point.  Without sounding unfairly critical, my current family in MW is very dependent on me as the leader to coordinate planet trades, infra jumps, fleet ratios, and pretty much just telling everybody what to do.  This sucks because 1) it's quite a bit of tedious and mindless work but more importantly 2) it enables people to be lazy.

I can't entirely blame any one of my family members for losing interest because if somebody else needs to take charge to coordinate such formulaic strategies, what is really left for them to do?  At best you'll get a few people interested in spread expansion strategies or war planning, but really so much of the game is logging in, saying "what are you building?" and then just coordinating aid to get people to a specific OB%.  It's incredibly boring, and places too much responsibility on too few players.

Torqez used a word in another thread that I very much liked: "empower".  I think if we could find a way to further empower individual empires we could make a more rewarding experience for current players and new players alike.  That translates very directly into more competition, and therefore a livlier game.

Without getting too specific into ideas (not the point of this thread) I do want to also point out that there is more to this than just race.  There is no limit to the way we can affect this part of the game's balance.  As an example, the other day I needed something as simple as a "check allies" spell but my only player who had that wasn't going to be online for several hours.  How frustrating that something so trivial impacted my ability to coordinate a proper defensive strategy.  Things like this honestly make me feel like I'm wasting my time.

Why shouldn't we for instance, have a "mercenary ops" market?  Again, this is just an example of how to empower individual players.  That idea may or may not be a good one (I personally like it) but the point is there is more to this than just race stats.

I think Altruist is putting it in a good way: we should ask ourselves what it means for a new player to commit to a new game for an entire 3 months.  How limited are they currently, and why should it remain so?

That sounds like it work well with the achievement system we've discussed elsewhere.

My opinion: make custom rase points 200.
and I would take part in galaxy where you are on your own and family like your aliances.
Team work i like too.

I am glad you guys finally figured out one of the biggest reasons behind the demise of this game, albeit years after it was identified. Better late than never I guess.

To the game administration, I suggest you go through the old think tank forums. You will find some useful literature on this particular issue as well as ideas on how to move (or jump) towards an SS style of play.

For the doubters, just consider this 1 simple fact:
Back when everyone played SS, IC had 10k empires
Post specialization of roles it declined to a few hundreds. Today we have what ~100-200 empires?

Teamwork is great as long as its limited to the maps page and not allowed onto the planets page.

Okay, so what's your guys' proposed solution?

Here's mine:

So those who coordinate real well would still rock this.

I could gamethis so muchTorqez.....

Only pop banking would die

Your missing my point.

3 players portal a system, they make a crap ton of lasers on all planets in there.

The system can be iron, endu, gc, octo, or food...

Swap as needed

The advantages: Less Empire Build Costs, specialization can still work, lack of growth forothers means your top dog

The disadvantages: more naps required, less total fighting, more total infrawhoring

If you want to change the game this is a bad direction imho.

Make it so only top level players do well at first and you cut out the weak.

Instead look for something that helps the new be equal to the old